Texas Rangers Coach is 'Favorite' to Manage Cleveland Guardians

As the Texas Rangers are fighting to advance in the playoffs, associate manager Will Venable is rumored to be a managerial candidate for an American League club.

The Texas Rangers hope their first trip to the playoffs since 2016 ends in their first World Series title. One one club's coaches may also end up with a new job when the postseason run is over.

Per USA Today, Rangers associate manager Will Venable is the “favorite” to replace Terry Francona in Cleveland, who retired after the season. That reporting is based on discussions with several league executives.

Venable and the Rangers are busy preparing for Game 3 of the American League Divisional Series after taking a 2-0 lead on the Baltimore Orioles.

Francona wrapped up a likely Hall-of-Fame managerial career after 23 years in which he won 1,950 games, took his teams to the playoffs 11 time and won two World Series with the Boston Red Sox (2004, 2007).

Venable is in his first season with the Rangers and he was one of the few outside hires that manager Bruce Bochy made when he joined the team in October. He inherited most of former manager Chris Woodward’s staff.

Venable has been in MLB coaching since 2018, when he joined the staff with the Chicago Cubs and spent three seasons in the Windy City. He was first base coach for two years and then the third base coach for his final year.

He joined the Red Sox in 2021, where he spent two seasons. He managed six games in place of Joey Cora after he tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022. Venable went 1-5 as interim manager.

Before he went into coaching, he played for three different teams — San Diego Padres, Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers — from 2008-16. The outfielder batted .249 with 81 home runs and 307 RBI.

The California native went to Princeton to play basketball, but he ended up playing both basketball and baseball for the Tigers and was named All-Ivy League in both sports, just the second Ivy League player to do so. The first was Rangers general manager Chris Young, who also went to Princeton.

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